Bad year for Arab financial markets

Published November 30th, 2011 - 08:31 GMT

The market capitalization of 14 Arab financial markets fell by 14% since the beginning of this year until November 26.

The market capitalization of 14 Arab financial markets fell by 14% since the beginning of this year until November 26. The loss amounted to US$128.7 billion. The figures were published by the Arab Monetary Fund. The report shows that the value of 13 Arab bourses fell, while the Qatari bourse kept its momentum.

The decline is attributed to the events of the "Arab Spring," which started late last year in Tunisia. These events led to a state of uncertainty and a slowdown in the economies of most the Middle East and North Africa countries.

The Stock Exchange of Damascus and Egypt posted the biggest decline in market capitalization in terms of percentage, followed by the Palestinian market and Kuwait. The Jordanian market is ranked 7th in terms of the decline with a drop of 14.1%. In money terms, the Egyptian Stock Exchange lost US$35.6 billion since the beginning of the year. The largest Arab bourse, the Saudi market, lost a total of US$34 billion since the beginning of 2011. All in all, the market capitalization of the Arab stock markets fell from US$991.5 billion at the end of 2010, to US$862.7 billion at the end of November 26. (Source: www.yallafinance.com[1])